Butterfly Moon
by Kiraban
Summary: Rukia, a daughter of a noble family gets kidnapped by pirates and to return to her home island she disguises herself as a man and a boards a pirate ship that belongs to a famous pirate Captain Ichigo Kurosaki


_I was having the same dream over and over again for the past few days. In that dream I was always drowning in the icy, cold water. I tried to cry out for help but every time I tired the salt burned my throat, which told me I was drowning in the ocean. Shivers ran down my body and for some reason I had no energy left in me to swim upwards. I was just sinking deeper and deeper into the black ocean like a rag doll. The next thing I know, a soft voice that belonged to a woman was calling out to me. From the sound of her alluring voice, even though I cannot see her I could tell she was very stunning and feminine. But the odd thing was she was not whispering out my name._

_"Orihime….Orihime" she would gently say._

_"Come with me Orihime"_

_Who's Orihime? I would always wonder to myself._

_Then despite being submerged under water I was finally able slowly open my eyes only to see small orbs of light floating up towards me like fireflies. As soon as the lights surround me I see myself floating up in air, then I realise I am just gliding in the ocean, but for some reason I was able to breath and open my eyes clearly without the salt water attacking me. The only source of light in my surroundings was the orbs that were floating around me. The rest of the area was dark like a starless night sky. Then the next thing I know, the orbs start forming into a shape of women and right after she reaches out her hands towards me I wake up._

"Wake up Kaien!"

As soon as I opened my eyes I saw Ashido's face only inches away from me. His face was so close to mine I was able to feel his smooth breathing. This caught me by surprise and I thoughtlessly punched him in his face which knocked him on the floor. In the instant that my thoughts caught up with my actions, I quickly sat upright and froze, shocked by my own uncontrolled reaction.  
"This better not be what you do every time I wake you up" he murmured out, rubbing his sore cheeks on the ground. Despite just being punched he seemed calm, unlike me who could feel my face burning.

"Ashido!" I cried out, "I'm so sorry!" embarrassed by my own action. I hastily jumped out of my hammock and studied his injury.

No matter how many times I look at Ashido I couldn't help but notice his face is inhumanly beautiful. All the features on his face were straight, perfect and angular and you couldn't help but get drawn into those sharp green eyes of his that created a nice contrast to his dark red hair.

"Its okay" he claimed standing up "Just get to work. We have to clean the deck"

It took me a while to realise the atmosphere around me were very vigorous. All the men were waking up, stretching and working out. I looked out from the window which was the only source of light in this room. The sun was coming out from the gloomy clouds, sending its morning rays down towards the sea. I yawned very loudly and rubbed my eyes. So this was what it was like to be a pirate.

It has now been ten days since I a boarded this ship. At first I struggled to keep up with the busy schedule, but now, as the days kept rolling by I was getting used to my new life style. It was now normal for me to wake up very early in the morning, scrub the deck, have breakfast, do some chores around the ship, have lunch, more chores, dinner, then go to sleep. However at the same time being around with all these delinquent looking men scared me as I was a girl disguised as a guy.

Looking at myself now I took great credit to myself as I really looked like a boy. My raven black hair, which used to be up to my shoulder was now very short and flat. My chest was flat and besides my large violet eyes my face was not that feminine. No matter who looked at me, I was a normal crew, although because my body was petite I lied about my age saying I was "thirteen" when in truth I am "fifteen". I also lied about my name. On this ship everyone knew me as "Kaien Shiba", when my real name is "Rukia Kuchiki", a daughter of a rich noble family but that was all a secret here.

"Kaien here?" a man called peeking from the door. I looked up to see Shuuhei Hisagi, one of the valued crew members of the ship calling out for me.

"Yeah" answered back

"You're new to the ship right?" he asked. I just nodded my head to reply

"Come with me, I'll introduce you to our Captain"

His offer took me by surprise as I did not expect a newbie like me to have the privilege to meet the Captain of the ship. In fact I did not wish to draw to much attention to anyone on the ship because as soon as this ship reached its next destination: Karakura Island I was planning on leaving this ship as soon as possible.

I was almost tongue twisted as I never expected Shuuhei to be talking to me so casually

"Oh…okay" I mumbled out

Ashido was watching me until I left the room. Shuuhei lead me across the corridor, passing many doors along the way. We walked in silence for a while until he reached a large wooden door. I had a feeling this was the Captain's room. Shuuhei knocked very roughly on the door

"Shuuhei here, I'm coming in"

The door creaked open and I peeked inside behind Shuuhei's large back. The room was dimly lit by candles and I could smell damp and dust. The wood used on the floor looked as though it needed some cleaning and maintenance and the room had a feeling of a derelict ship. I looked across the room to see a large window which was covered by a moth-eaten curtain. The room was very gloomy and it was the sort of room you'd expect a ghost to pop out from.

"Captain, I want you to meet our new crew" Shuuhei announced.

I gazed across a large figure leaning back on his chair, his feet on his clustered desk and his black pirate hat covering his face. The man yawned very loudly underneath his hat, and very awkwardly removed his hat from his face and stood up from his chair.

I was very astonished by how young he looked when I was expecting a middle aged man covered in scars from top to bottom. The boy looked like he was around the same age as me, although this boy was nothing like a boy. His shirt looked very tight on his with his muscles and abs and he was very tall. While staring I noticed his spiky orange hair stood out a lot. He may have noticed me observing his hair too much he had a scowl on his face. His dark brown eyes were glaring into mine and the atmosphere in the looked tensed.

" Kaien Shiba" I quickly introduced myself. I tried to put on a very deep voice to convince them I was a man and not a girl "Nice to finally meet you Captain"

The Captain studied me for a while. I could feel his glaring burning a hole right through me which made me all frozen. I couldn't help but notice the feature of his face was hard, yet similar to Ashido it was perfect and angular.

"You look like a girl" he said

My heart felt as though it missed a beat. Although I knew he meant it in a totally harmless way my heart started beating louder and louder like drums

"Haha" was all I was able to choke out. A drop of sweat ran down my face. I was quite flattered he thought I was a girl but I did not wishes to get kicked out of the ship

"But then again, your chest is too flat to be a girl" he said.

Instantly I felt something boil inside me as soon as he let out those words in loose. Clenching my fist in anger I felt them shaking very viciously. But I knew better. Calming myself down I let out a deep breath and twitched a smile

"The names Ichigo Kurosaki but you better call me Captain" Ichigo grinned. It may have just been me but his grin looked very arrogant and cocky in my opinion. When he grinned I noticed the scowl around his eye brows remained, which told me he naturally looked like he was in a bad mood.

"Yes Captain" I groaned out. I almost wished my voice this not sound too rude.

"Cool, now get back to work" he ordered me. Then he slumped back on his chair and went back to his sleep before we disturbed him.

My first impression of Ichigo Kurosaki: Rude. Even though he is the Captain of this ship he was rubbing his eyes and scratched his hair, looking very bothered about his sleep being disturbed. He did not even bother a smile unless you count that mocking grin and his comment about my chest really bothered me.

"Sorry. He's been very busy these days" Shuuhei said after we left the room

"Oh yeah, with what?"

"With the Butterfly Moon"

"The what?"

"The Butterfly Moon!" Shuuhei said "I don't know much about it myself to tell you the truth" he laughed. It was my first time seeing such a warm expression coming from Shuuhei. He had an image of a calm, cool guy in my head. But that image may have built up because of the delequent features on Shuuhei's face. Shuuhei had a scar vertically down across his right side of his face which gave me the impression he fought a lot. A unique blue strip ran horizontally, halfway across his left side of his face and under that blue tattoo was a number "69" written on his cheek. His eyes were small, yet sharp and similar to Ichigo's hair style, it was spiky yet black.

"Well…" Shuuhei said, patting me on my small back "You better get back to work now"

After getting back to work the day passed very fast. I cleaned the deck the whole day, ate dinner, did more jobs around the house and finally I went to sleep.

That night I had the same dream again.

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**Its my first time putting a story on so please review. i really want to know what you guys think ^^**


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